Hakone Kowakien Ten-yu

Amenities: The hotel provides numerous amenities, such as free ice cream, drinks, and snacks in the lobby. Guests appreciate the comfortable rooms, massage chairs, and the luxurious atmosphere created by traditional decor and music performances.(based on 21 reviews)

Was really fun, blending traditional and modern amenities. Food could have been better.

Dear Hotel Team, I did not want to make these points of criticism public and therefore sent you an email on September 16, 2025. Since I have not received any response by October 1, 2025, I am now publishing my points of criticism. Thank you very much for hosting us from September 14 to 16 2025. Your service is so attentive and friendly - it was consistently perfect. Unfortunately, we experienced many shortcomings that I would like to point out to you. The room, unfortunately, was not clean. The sink siphon is yellow, and the bathtub on the balcony is full of residue from the thermal water. We found hair everywhere: on the floor, the bed, and the couch. I would expect a different hygiene standard in a 5-star hotel. The bed linen seemed old and had frayed edges and loose threads sticking out. It did not feel inviting to sleep in. On the terrace, the hanging chair had a hole that looked like it was caused by a cigarette. The wooden surfaces in the room showed a lot of wear and damage in many areas. Simply touching them up with a suitable marker or paint would already make them look newer and more high-quality. At the buffet, the water glasses were unfortunately very small. In the summer heat, I had to fetch four rounds of two glasses each at dinner to stay sufficiently hydrated. At the first breakfast, I got a cappuccino from the coffee machine. No milk came out, even though a staff member had just refilled it, and the remaining coffee tasted strongly of cleaning agent. The taste lingered in my mouth until the evening. I only took one sip and didn’t want to drink any more. On the first night, I was woken up by irregular beeping in the room. After a long search, I identified the safe as the source. The safe was irregularly entering codes on its own without any input. I tried to open it with my PIN - since our laptops were locked inside - but I couldn’t open it anymore. The error HOLD03 appeared, so I wanted to wait the three minutes for a new PIN entry. In the meantime, the safe entered codes again by itself and reactivated the HOLD03 timer. Luckily, I found a three-minute phase when the safe didn’t make an input on its own, and I was able to open it with my PIN. Out of lack of trust, I didn’t lock the laptops in the safe again. I kindly ask you to have the safe serviced and the defect repaired. Because of this, I unfortunately slept poorly and with the hygiene issues and the problems at the buffet, the overall stay was not enjoyable. A single problem would not make the stay worse, but the accumulation of issues put us off and does not correspond to a 5-star hotel charging ¥80,000 per night for a simple double room. I hope my feedback helps you and wish that you can resolve the problems easily and cost-effectively. Your service is on such a high level, and we truly appreciate that. Best regards